Kenny Everett Video Show, The (1978)-The Complete Naughty Bits

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Gallery-Photo Biographies-Cast-Kenny Everett Trailer-Commercial Time Music Highlights-Hot Gossip Trailer-Man About The House , George & Mildred, Bless This House Production Notes
Rating
Year Of Production	1978
Running Time	113:40 (Case: 120)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	David Mallet Royston Mayoh
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Kenny Everett
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

    Kenny Everett - The Complete Naughty Bits is a reminder of what was, at the time, some fairly outrageous comedy and some incredibly hot dancing. It is hard to appreciate now, but when The Kenny Everett Video Show premiered in 1978 it was regarded as outrageous programming. This disc presents two previously released compilations in one large chunk - Naughty Bits and More Naughty Bits.

    The original television shows featured "state of the art" video special effects (chroma-key and split-screen), the like of which had rarely been seen in comedy shows of the time. The risqué humour, special effects, overtly sexual dancers and gamut of local stars (Lionel Blair, Cliff Richard, Bernard Manning, David Essex et alia) propelled the former radio DJ Kenny Everett (born Maurice Cole in Liverpool in 1944) to the realms of television superstar in the UK.

    Fast forward from UK 1978 to Australia 2003. The video effects are now inferior to what we can produce on a modest home PC. The dancing is simply kitsch nonsense with no titillation value at all. The guest stars are now a bunch of old has-beens. So, what does that leave us with...? It leaves us with a genuinely inventive comedian - one Kenny Everett. His comedic abilities still manage to raise an occasional chuckle some 25 years on. He created a wide range of characters, many of whom could still hold their own in today's sketch-show market. Sid Snott, Cupid Stunt, Marcel Wave, Tinsel man and Captain Kremmen were just a few of his crazy alter-egos. His spoof of the Bee Gees is still cruelly amusing. Does that make this extensive collection of two hours of very brief sketches essential viewing? No, it doesn't - much of this collection is simply no longer funny. Some of it however, is. This is an extensive collection which will bring back a flood of memories to some and new laughs to a few others.

    For fans of Everett, or those who wish to revisit some teenage memories, this may provide some genuine laughs. For most people unfamiliar with Everett's work, it will provide the occasional smile but more frequently, a quizzical look... are "tit" jokes still funny? Do the Hamlet cigar ads mean anything to present-day Australians? Who the heck was Bernard Manning or Terry Wogan? Overall, I would suggest that this disc is for existing fans only.

Video

    The video quality of this transfer is pretty average even taking into account its age, and is basically a VHS standard transfer.

    The series is presented in a full screen ratio of 1.33:1, which is the original televised aspect ratio. The video quality is pretty average throughout and has been encoded at a bitrate averaging just over 6 Mbps.

    Primary colours are reasonably bright but there is a general muddiness to many of the sketches. There is little in the way of low light filming so black levels and shadow detail are hard to judge.

    MPEG artefacts are present with pixelization and some low level macro blocking detectable. There is some noticeable shimmer in the image, with moire effects cropping up on the video monitors. Edge enhancement is sometimes very noticeable as a bright halo around Everett in the studio scenes (for example at 9:40 or 56:04). Coloured halos are often evident around characters as well, when they are filmed against a blue screen, or a bright white backdrop. Telecine wobble crops up from time to time, particularly during the animated Captain Kremmen sketches.

    There are occasional brief video glitches present, but these are not overly distracting. The transfer does have numerous scratches, specks and flecks, which are at their worst during the Captain Kremmen animations.

    There are no subtitles available.

    The sketches are presented on a dual layered, single sided (DVD 9) formatted disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The overall audio transfer is acceptable.

    The sole English audio track is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, encoded at 224 kbps.

    Dialogue is usually clear although there are occasional hints of distortion and general muddiness present. There are no major issues with audio sync, but the video monitor montages do suffer from sync issues (for example at 0:25). Due to the lack of a studio audience, the studio laughter is provided courtesy of the crew. It adds a feeling of intimacy to the proceedings and avoids the pitfall of the excessive canned laughter so often used at the time.

    The disc features various musical numbers of the copyright-free variety during the sketches and several contemporary pop tunes to accompany the cringe-worthy Hot Gossip dance sequences.

    The surrounds and subwoofer are, of course, unused.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are several extras of questionable value on the disc.

Menu

    The main menu is a static cartoon of Everett within a cartoon television set. It allows the selection of Naughty Bits, More Naughty Bits, playing all the sketches in sequence or Everett's Extras:

Candid Kenny

    Ten very small photos of Everett taken from the shows. Call this an extra? Gimme a break!

Biography

    Seven tiny screens of text based biography. Yawn.

Commercial Time

    Running for 1:24, literally an original narrated commercial encouraging you to buy the VHS versions of Naughty Bits and More Naughty Bits.

Captain Kremmen

    Essentially a chapter selection allowing you to jump to one of the six featured Captain Kremmen sketches.

Hot Gossip

    Another chapter selection allowing you to jump to one of the seven featured Hot Gossip dance routines.

Umbrella Propaganda

    Fullscreen trailers for Man About The House (1:06), George & Mildred (0:40), Bless This House (2:25) and Love Thy Neighbour (2:54) presented with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 224 kbps.

    This disc does not appear to be available in Region 1 or (surprisingly) Region 2. Region 4 would appear to be your only choice.

    Kenny Everett - The Complete Naughty Bits is another example of television comedy which served a purpose at the time. It paved the way for more outrageous comedies to come, but has not really stood the test of time itself. I would recommend that you watch this disc in short bursts, as it soon becomes rather repetitive. The Hot Gossip dance routines are now barely tepid and quite risible. Overall, I can only recommend this to existing fans of Kenny Everett - I honestly do not feel it will attract any new converts.

    The video quality is adequate.

    The audio transfer is adequate.

    There are minimal extras of questionable value - but at least they are there.

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Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall